10 AGES OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON. CHAP. II. 



Danish and Swedish antiquaries and naturalists, MM. Nillson, 

 Steenstrup, Forchhammer, Thomsen, Worsaae and others, 

 have succeeded in establishing a chronological succession of 

 periods, which they have called the ages of stone, of bronze, 

 and of iron, named from the materials which have each in 

 their turn served for the fabrication of implements. 



The age of stone in Denmark coincided with the period 

 of the first vegetation, or that of the Scotch fir, and in part 

 at least with the second vegetation, or that of the oak. But 

 a considerable portion of the oak epoch coincided with ' the 

 age of bronze,' for swords and shields of that metal, now 

 in the Museum of Copenhagen, have been taken out of peat 

 in which oaks abound. The age of iron corresponded more 

 nearly with that of the beech tree.* 



M. Morlot, to whom we are indebted for a masterly sketch 

 of the recent progress of this new line of research, followed 

 up with so much success in Scandinavia and Switzerland, 

 observes that the introduction of the first tools made of bronze 

 among a people previously ignorant of the use of metals, im 

 plies a great advance in the arts, for bronze is an alloy of 

 about nine parts of copper and one of tin ; and although the 

 former metal, copper, is by no means rare, and is occasionally 

 found pure or in a native state, tin is not only scarce but 

 never occurs native. To detect the existence of this metal in 

 its ore, then to disengage it from the matrix, and finally, 

 after blending it in due proportion with copper, to cast the 

 fused mixture in a mould, allowing time for it to acquire 

 hardness by slow cooling, all this bespeaks no small sagacity 

 and skilful manipulation. Accordingly, the pottery found 

 associated with weapons of bronze is of a more ornamental 

 and tasteful style than any which belongs to the age of 

 stone. Some of the moulds in which the bronze instruments 

 were cast, and ( tags,' as they are called, of bronze, which are 



* Morlot, Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise des Sci. Nat., t. vi. p. 292. 



